Trip Report So I guess Disney thinks Canadians do not celebrate Christmas?? A Max Trip Report- COMPLETED

A big hello to all my Disney friends:

As the title suggest this is a trip report regarding our recent Christmas adventure at Walt Disney World

Why the title you ask? I will keep you guessing on that one for a few days at least

Details leading up to the departure can be found here:

https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads...-max-the-girls-and-the-boys-do-disney.951075/

This is my 6th trip report on these boards so hopefully you have read at least one before

The reason I say that is that my style might not suit all - I can probably sum it up as

1) Shoot from the hip
2) Do not pull punches
3) Definitely not PC
4) Not always PG
5) As much Seinfeld references as @Tuvalu can handle
6) Not too heavy or too light on the Pixie dust -keep it real and call it as I see it

Quick introduction will come from:

Day 1 - Travel Day towards the US but not quite beyond the comfort of home:
Friday Dec 21, 2018

The original plan was to drive from our home in Waterloo Ont Canada to Buffalo NY on Sat Dec 22.
With a 10:35 am fight a same day drive could have worked.

We switched it up to a drive on the day before and booked a hotel in Niagara Falls Canada

(our B&B in Buffalo backed out on us - @Doc Disney can try to explain how she let us down!!!)

So here we are at the Embassy Suites on Friday enjoying our homemade Mickey cookies

Me (Max, Andrew, Clarence) and Tricia

My younger daughter Cassie and Shane (BF)

and my older daughter Stephanie and her fiancé Jordan

and this is all of us at the Falls ( selfies are harder with six people!!!)

This report will chronicle Disney trip 28 for me and lucky(?) 13 to WDW.
It is also 13 to WDW for Tricia
The girls celebrate 10 trips to the world
Trip 2 for Shane (though his memory of the first is limited)

And - 1ST TIME FOR JORDAN!!!!!!

More Day 1 to follow and then off to Buffalo the next day!!!

Welcome aboard, ashore and wherever we are!!!

Max

 

[PrincessJasmyn]

Way to leave us on the edge of our seats!

 

[fractal]

Day 4 - Animal Kingdom
( and now we figure out the title of the report)

We decided to use the rental and drive - parked in unicorn section

View attachment 343567
So we showed up 45 min before start of early entry
we were about 10 parties back in line
And they opened up 30 min early
We got to the scan location at 7:40am

A little background on the trip

1) We booked hotel and purchased 6 x 6 day hopper passes in May
2) In September I saw a TV ad for Canadian resident
3) I call Disney and asked them if I could switch to the Canadian ticket for my upcoming trip
4) They let me do it and refunded me $485US
5) Early October I called IT three time (longer than 30 min each) to get the Canadian tickets sorted out/ assigned to the right people -( they gave us the 3 Multi Pass FP for MK)
6) At the 60 day mark we booked all FP from Dec 22 to Dec 27 with no issues
7) On Dec 22 we went to the Epcot ticket booth, showed our Canadian Passports and linked our tickets to our Magic Bands, and went into Epcot
8) On Dec 23 we went to MK and used our Magic bands and FP

So now on Dec 24 we go up to AK gate and Mickey turns blue
WTH???

Hand up in the air - next level CM walks up
"Oh you have Canadian resident passes - they are not valid from Dec 24 to Dec 31...."

View attachment 343571

Max

 

[wdwfamilynh]

Day 4 - Animal Kingdom
( and now we figure out the title of the report)

We decided to use the rental and drive - parked in unicorn section

View attachment 343567
So we showed up 45 min before start of early entry
we were about 10 parties back in line
And they opened up 30 min early
We got to the scan location at 7:40am

A little background on the trip

1) We booked hotel and purchased 6 x 6 day hopper passes in May
2) In September I saw a TV ad for Canadian resident
3) I call Disney and asked them if I could switch to the Canadian ticket for my upcoming trip
4) They let me do it and refunded me $485US
5) Early October I called IT three time (longer than 30 min each) to get the Canadian tickets sorted out/ assigned to the right people -( they gave us the 3 Multi Pass FP for MK)
6) At the 60 day mark we booked all FP from Dec 22 to Dec 27 with no issues
7) On Dec 22 we went to the Epcot ticket booth, showed our Canadian Passports and linked our tickets to our Magic Bands, and went into Epcot
8) On Dec 23 we went to MK and used our Magic bands and FP

So now on Dec 24 we go up to AK gate and Mickey turns blue
WTH???

Hand up in the air - next level CM walks up
"Oh you have Canadian resident passes - they are not valid from Dec 24 to Dec 31...."

View attachment 343571

Max

Max, I hope you post the rest of this part of the story soon! You’ve really left us hanging this time

 

[Swissmiss]

Max is enjoying torturing us

 

[Rista1313]

Max is enjoying torturing us

For sure...he keeps reading the pleads and he's probably laughing hard!

 

[Durfish]

 

[darthcarranus]

Day 4 - Animal Kingdom
( and now we figure out the title of the report)

We decided to use the rental and drive - parked in unicorn section

View attachment 343567
So we showed up 45 min before start of early entry
we were about 10 parties back in line
And they opened up 30 min early
We got to the scan location at 7:40am

A little background on the trip

1) We booked hotel and purchased 6 x 6 day hopper passes in May
2) In September I saw a TV ad for Canadian resident
3) I call Disney and asked them if I could switch to the Canadian ticket for my upcoming trip
4) They let me do it and refunded me $485US
5) Early October I called IT three time (longer than 30 min each) to get the Canadian tickets sorted out/ assigned to the right people -( they gave us the 3 Multi Pass FP for MK)
6) At the 60 day mark we booked all FP from Dec 22 to Dec 27 with no issues
7) On Dec 22 we went to the Epcot ticket booth, showed our Canadian Passports and linked our tickets to our Magic Bands, and went into Epcot
8) On Dec 23 we went to MK and used our Magic bands and FP

So now on Dec 24 we go up to AK gate and Mickey turns blue
WTH???

Hand up in the air - next level CM walks up
"Oh you have Canadian resident passes - they are not valid from Dec 24 to Dec 31...."

View attachment 343571

Max

no way

 

[amjt660]

Whaaat indeed! Being turned away at the gates of a Disney theme park is the makings of a horror movie.

Well it certainly was not a RomCom!!!

Whattttt?! Following along!

Thanks for following -details to follow this post

Um...

Love it - Chaos theory indeed

Talk about a cliffhanger!

You were warned in post 1 that there would be drama!

Huh???

Nice!!! - and of course coming from a major fan of kitties this was well chosen

And nobody thought to inform you of this information when it was clear you were purchasing them to use during that very time period???

That will come up in the next post....

On the edge of my seat! They shouldn't have let you book the tickets for those dates if they weren't going to work...

Details to follow but yes - you are correct in my opinion

It sounds like they booked the hotel and tickets separately. The blockout dates are noted on the website for the Canadian ticket offer.

If they had booked a package, I assume this wouldn't have happened. If the tickets weren't linked to a resort reservation, the person doing the discount might not know which dates OP intended to use them.

Welcome to the Trip Report boards

If you see Max’s post above, he called Disney to ask about the tickets in relationship to his upcoming trip. It is on that phone call that he should have been given information about blackout dates.

Thanks for having my back!!

For sure, he should have been told "yes you can change your tickets, they're good until such and such date, and not valid during the Dec 24 blockout period".

However, since several people were surprised at what happened, I noted how it could have occurred. He may not have mentioned the dates, referring to only an "upcoming trip", and the tickets were not linked to a resort reservation from what he wrote. Therefore, the cast member simply provided the ticket that was requested.

No different than buying an annual pass. A cast member might mention to the guest that there are certain blockout dates, or they may assume they guest is aware and simply sell the pass.

In any case, not a disastrous scenario. The worst outcome is that they have to revert back to the original non-discounted price.

Gee , why didn't I think of that......

Bummer about BTMR. It’s such a fun ride. Shame they didn’t have HEA. Such a great show. Was there an evening event that night?

Major bummer for the boys not being able to ride - we rationalized that it is a good reason to have to come back!!

Way to leave us on the edge of our seats!

I aim to please!

Very nice fractal - I probably had that similar expression on that morning!

Max, I hope you post the rest of this part of the story soon! You’ve really left us hanging this time

Details coming soon - thanks for hanging in there!

Max is enjoying torturing us

For sure...he keeps reading the pleads and he's probably laughing hard!

Of course not, I would never do that......

View attachment 343931

next post

Max

 

[Rista1313]

Of course not, I would never do that......

 

[Swissmiss]

I may tease you like the little bro I never had, but yes, I got your back

 

[Swissmiss]

View attachment 344115

Oh why oh why can’t we do multiple likes? I’d give this one several

 

[amjt660]

** WARNING - TEXT ONLY - NOT A LOT OF DISNEY LOVE - SKIP IF YOU WANT TO - I WISH I COULD HAVE!! **


Day 4 - AK - Well, now what do we do?

So we were escorted over to a good size line waiting at Guest Relations
15 min till we got to the window and then we ran into our first shining example of customer service
(note: I did not record names )

CM: No pleasantries, no expression of concern, stared at her screen , asked for all magic bands, complained that she had only started 20 min ago!!! - oh I am sorry I am being such an inconvenience !!

Then she says she has a solution and it will only cost me $157 per person ( $942 in total)
I guess prices went up and this is the best she could do

My reaction was not positive
I requested to see a supervisor

Wait, some more..

Supervisor : The website stated the tickets were not valid
Customer: I did not use the website - I talked to your CM at reservations

Zero apologies , Zero empathy, keep stating it was on the website and I should have known

Finally as the stalemate continued I decided to give up and simply said - just charge me the original price
(Even though this was not my mistake I could not stand to waste more of my vacation on their incompetence)

And yes, my MDE app has had the hotel and the ticket linked to each other since May 2018.
A misunderstanding over travel dates was not the problem

The left hand not talking to the right hand?? BINGO!!

Reservations did not pick up on it and sold me the Canadian Res tickets

IS did not notice (on 3 occasions) as I tried to link them to the right people
(at one point I had 12 tickets - 6 regular and 6 Canadian - but 7 of the tickets were in my name)

The Fast pass system did not pick up that my Canadian Res tickets could not be used to book FP from Dec 24 to Dec 27

The CM at the Epcot booth on Dec 22 that checked our passport did not pick up on it

Now before you say - but Drew those are different departments - how are they supposed to know?

And my response is - don't know don't care - Disney is Disney

@Matt and Kelly recently completed a training course on Disney Customer Service

This group on Dec 24 at AK needs to attend the training.


Final Result:
60 min wait at Guest Relations (longest line of the trip!!)
$445 dollars out of pocket ( a little less than original cost - she comp'd 2 days and charge new price for other 3 and it worked out to this new amount)
3 FP added to my account - one for Navi River- would not do Flight of Passage (we were going to rope drop to try to see the queue)
Probably 30 more min of straight up anger as we went through the gate and explained it all to my family
At least 2-3 days of second guessing and tying to reconcile/rationalize why I gave in and paid more money on the spot
And as of today 32 days of disappointment and disillusionment regarding the "new Disney Way"

Note: I am not naïve - even though I hang out in Trip Reports I do not snort Pixie Dust - but I have never been treated this way by Disney in any of my last 27 trips.
The blame for the mistake was being aimed back at me.
The customer was 100% wrong
I felt like they thought I was trying to scam my way in at a lower cost.
This was a low point in my history of interaction with Disney park CM

I need to go back to Cali or Tokyo or Hong Kong
I felt appreciated and welcomed.

Max

 

[Swissmiss]

Sounds like your no Joy day was at AK and not at EPCOT.

 

[TheMouseFan]

** WARNING - TEXT ONLY - NOT A LOT OF DISNEY LOVE - SKIP IF YOU WANT TO - I WISH I COULD HAVE!! **


Day 4 - AK - Well, now what do we do?

So we were escorted over to a good size line waiting at Guest Relations
15 min till we got to the window and then we ran into our first shining example of customer service
(note: I did not record names )

CM: No pleasantries, no expression of concern, stared at her screen , asked for all magic bands, complained that she had only started 20 min ago!!! - oh I am sorry I am being such an inconvenience !!

Then she says she has a solution and it will only cost me $157 per person ( $942 in total)
I guess prices went up and this is the best she could do

My reaction was not positive
I requested to see a supervisor

Wait, some more..

Supervisor : The website stated the tickets were not valid
Customer: I did not use the website - I talked to your CM at reservations

Zero apologies , Zero empathy, keep stating it was on the website and I should have known

Finally as the stalemate continued I decided to give up and simply said - just charge me the original price
(Even though this was not my mistake I could not stand to waste more of my vacation on their incompetence)

And yes, my MDE app has had the hotel and the ticket linked to each other since May 2018.
A misunderstanding over travel dates was not the problem

The left hand not talking to the right hand?? BINGO!!

Reservations did not pick up on it and sold me the Canadian Res tickets

IS did not notice (on 3 occasions) as I tried to link them to the right people
(at one point I had 12 tickets - 6 regular and 6 Canadian - but 7 of the tickets were in my name)

The Fast pass system did not pick up that my Canadian Res tickets could not be used to book FP from Dec 24 to Dec 27

The CM at the Epcot booth on Dec 22 that checked our passport did not pick up on it

Now before you say - but Drew those are different departments - how are they supposed to know?

And my response is - don't know don't care - Disney is Disney

@Matt and Kelly recently completed a training course on Disney Customer Service

This group on Dec 24 at AK needs to attend the training.


Final Result:
60 min wait at Guest Relations (longest line of the trip!!)
$445 dollars out of pocket ( a little less than original cost - she comp'd 2 days and charge new price for other 3 and it worked out to this new amount)
3 FP added to my account - one for Navi River- would not do Flight of Passage (we were going to rope drop to try to see the queue)
Probably 30 more min of straight up anger as we went through the gate and explained it all to my family
At least 2-3 days of second guessing and tying to reconcile/rationalize why I gave in and paid more money on the spot
And as of today 32 days of disappointment and disillusionment regarding the "new Disney Way"

Note: I am not naïve - even though I hang out in Trip Reports I do not snort Pixie Dust - but I have never been treated this way by Disney in any of my last 27 trips.
The blame for the mistake was being aimed back at me.
The customer was 100% wrong
I felt like they thought I was trying to scam my way in at a lower cost.
This was a low point in my history of interaction with Disney park CM

I need to go back to Cali or Tokyo or Hong Kong
I felt appreciated and welcomed.

Max

My like was in support of you, not because I liked what you were telling us! That is awful that you were treated that way! I am a little disillusioned with Disney after our trip too! I hope the rest of your trip went more smoothly!

 

[Matt and Kelly]

** WARNING - TEXT ONLY - NOT A LOT OF DISNEY LOVE - SKIP IF YOU WANT TO - I WISH I COULD HAVE!! **


Day 4 - AK - Well, now what do we do?

So we were escorted over to a good size line waiting at Guest Relations
15 min till we got to the window and then we ran into our first shining example of customer service
(note: I did not record names )

CM: No pleasantries, no expression of concern, stared at her screen , asked for all magic bands, complained that she had only started 20 min ago!!! - oh I am sorry I am being such an inconvenience !!

Then she says she has a solution and it will only cost me $157 per person ( $942 in total)
I guess prices went up and this is the best she could do

My reaction was not positive
I requested to see a supervisor

Wait, some more..

Supervisor : The website stated the tickets were not valid
Customer: I did not use the website - I talked to your CM at reservations

Zero apologies , Zero empathy, keep stating it was on the website and I should have known

Finally as the stalemate continued I decided to give up and simply said - just charge me the original price
(Even though this was not my mistake I could not stand to waste more of my vacation on their incompetence)

And yes, my MDE app has had the hotel and the ticket linked to each other since May 2018.
A misunderstanding over travel dates was not the problem

The left hand not talking to the right hand?? BINGO!!

Reservations did not pick up on it and sold me the Canadian Res tickets

IS did not notice (on 3 occasions) as I tried to link them to the right people
(at one point I had 12 tickets - 6 regular and 6 Canadian - but 7 of the tickets were in my name)

The Fast pass system did not pick up that my Canadian Res tickets could not be used to book FP from Dec 24 to Dec 27

The CM at the Epcot booth on Dec 22 that checked our passport did not pick up on it

Now before you say - but Drew those are different departments - how are they supposed to know?

And my response is - don't know don't care - Disney is Disney

@Matt and Kelly recently completed a training course on Disney Customer Service

This group on Dec 24 at AK needs to attend the training.


Final Result:
60 min wait at Guest Relations (longest line of the trip!!)
$445 dollars out of pocket ( a little less than original cost - she comp'd 2 days and charge new price for other 3 and it worked out to this new amount)
3 FP added to my account - one for Navi River- would not do Flight of Passage (we were going to rope drop to try to see the queue)
Probably 30 more min of straight up anger as we went through the gate and explained it all to my family
At least 2-3 days of second guessing and tying to reconcile/rationalize why I gave in and paid more money on the spot
And as of today 32 days of disappointment and disillusionment regarding the "new Disney Way"

Note: I am not naïve - even though I hang out in Trip Reports I do not snort Pixie Dust - but I have never been treated this way by Disney in any of my last 27 trips.
The blame for the mistake was being aimed back at me.
The customer was 100% wrong
I felt like they thought I was trying to scam my way in at a lower cost.
This was a low point in my history of interaction with Disney park CM

I need to go back to Cali or Tokyo or Hong Kong
I felt appreciated and welcomed.

Max

Sorry to hear you had such a poor experience.

 

[DisneyGigi]

** WARNING - TEXT ONLY - NOT A LOT OF DISNEY LOVE - SKIP IF YOU WANT TO - I WISH I COULD HAVE!! **


Day 4 - AK - Well, now what do we do?

So we were escorted over to a good size line waiting at Guest Relations
15 min till we got to the window and then we ran into our first shining example of customer service
(note: I did not record names )

CM: No pleasantries, no expression of concern, stared at her screen , asked for all magic bands, complained that she had only started 20 min ago!!! - oh I am sorry I am being such an inconvenience !!

Then she says she has a solution and it will only cost me $157 per person ( $942 in total)
I guess prices went up and this is the best she could do

My reaction was not positive
I requested to see a supervisor

Wait, some more..

Supervisor : The website stated the tickets were not valid
Customer: I did not use the website - I talked to your CM at reservations

Zero apologies , Zero empathy, keep stating it was on the website and I should have known

Finally as the stalemate continued I decided to give up and simply said - just charge me the original price
(Even though this was not my mistake I could not stand to waste more of my vacation on their incompetence)

And yes, my MDE app has had the hotel and the ticket linked to each other since May 2018.
A misunderstanding over travel dates was not the problem

The left hand not talking to the right hand?? BINGO!!

Reservations did not pick up on it and sold me the Canadian Res tickets

IS did not notice (on 3 occasions) as I tried to link them to the right people
(at one point I had 12 tickets - 6 regular and 6 Canadian - but 7 of the tickets were in my name)

The Fast pass system did not pick up that my Canadian Res tickets could not be used to book FP from Dec 24 to Dec 27

The CM at the Epcot booth on Dec 22 that checked our passport did not pick up on it

Now before you say - but Drew those are different departments - how are they supposed to know?

And my response is - don't know don't care - Disney is Disney

@Matt and Kelly recently completed a training course on Disney Customer Service

This group on Dec 24 at AK needs to attend the training.


Final Result:
60 min wait at Guest Relations (longest line of the trip!!)
$445 dollars out of pocket ( a little less than original cost - she comp'd 2 days and charge new price for other 3 and it worked out to this new amount)
3 FP added to my account - one for Navi River- would not do Flight of Passage (we were going to rope drop to try to see the queue)
Probably 30 more min of straight up anger as we went through the gate and explained it all to my family
At least 2-3 days of second guessing and tying to reconcile/rationalize why I gave in and paid more money on the spot
And as of today 32 days of disappointment and disillusionment regarding the "new Disney Way"

Note: I am not naïve - even though I hang out in Trip Reports I do not snort Pixie Dust - but I have never been treated this way by Disney in any of my last 27 trips.
The blame for the mistake was being aimed back at me.
The customer was 100% wrong
I felt like they thought I was trying to scam my way in at a lower cost.
This was a low point in my history of interaction with Disney park CM

I need to go back to Cali or Tokyo or Hong Kong
I felt appreciated and welcomed.

Max

Ugh, I went into this thinking that surely they fixed it for you. I am so sorry to hear that they did not. I honestly think sometimes it depends on the CM or CM’s handling it. I know we have gotten refunds that I didn’t expect but also talked to one CM that was such a not nice person, I actually canceled a trip. Ended up rebooking later, as not to cut my own nose off to spite my face, so to speak, but I did give her a horrible review because she was just a witch.

I hope you guys salvaged the day and still had a good time. I don’t blame you for being ticked-I would have blown a fuse, this is not the Disney Way! At all... If it was an AP, maybe I could see but it was for specific dates, how could they not tie that together?

 

[Darstarr]

** WARNING - TEXT ONLY - NOT A LOT OF DISNEY LOVE - SKIP IF YOU WANT TO - I WISH I COULD HAVE!! **


Day 4 - AK - Well, now what do we do?

So we were escorted over to a good size line waiting at Guest Relations
15 min till we got to the window and then we ran into our first shining example of customer service
(note: I did not record names )

CM: No pleasantries, no expression of concern, stared at her screen , asked for all magic bands, complained that she had only started 20 min ago!!! - oh I am sorry I am being such an inconvenience !!

Then she says she has a solution and it will only cost me $157 per person ( $942 in total)
I guess prices went up and this is the best she could do

My reaction was not positive
I requested to see a supervisor

Wait, some more..

Supervisor : The website stated the tickets were not valid
Customer: I did not use the website - I talked to your CM at reservations

Zero apologies , Zero empathy, keep stating it was on the website and I should have known

Finally as the stalemate continued I decided to give up and simply said - just charge me the original price
(Even though this was not my mistake I could not stand to waste more of my vacation on their incompetence)

And yes, my MDE app has had the hotel and the ticket linked to each other since May 2018.
A misunderstanding over travel dates was not the problem

The left hand not talking to the right hand?? BINGO!!

Reservations did not pick up on it and sold me the Canadian Res tickets

IS did not notice (on 3 occasions) as I tried to link them to the right people
(at one point I had 12 tickets - 6 regular and 6 Canadian - but 7 of the tickets were in my name)

The Fast pass system did not pick up that my Canadian Res tickets could not be used to book FP from Dec 24 to Dec 27

The CM at the Epcot booth on Dec 22 that checked our passport did not pick up on it

Now before you say - but Drew those are different departments - how are they supposed to know?

And my response is - don't know don't care - Disney is Disney

@Matt and Kelly recently completed a training course on Disney Customer Service

This group on Dec 24 at AK needs to attend the training.


Final Result:
60 min wait at Guest Relations (longest line of the trip!!)
$445 dollars out of pocket ( a little less than original cost - she comp'd 2 days and charge new price for other 3 and it worked out to this new amount)
3 FP added to my account - one for Navi River- would not do Flight of Passage (we were going to rope drop to try to see the queue)
Probably 30 more min of straight up anger as we went through the gate and explained it all to my family
At least 2-3 days of second guessing and tying to reconcile/rationalize why I gave in and paid more money on the spot
And as of today 32 days of disappointment and disillusionment regarding the "new Disney Way"

Note: I am not naïve - even though I hang out in Trip Reports I do not snort Pixie Dust - but I have never been treated this way by Disney in any of my last 27 trips.
The blame for the mistake was being aimed back at me.
The customer was 100% wrong
I felt like they thought I was trying to scam my way in at a lower cost.
This was a low point in my history of interaction with Disney park CM

I need to go back to Cali or Tokyo or Hong Kong
I felt appreciated and welcomed.

Max

I am so sorry! This really stinks!!!
I have a similar ‘right hand not knowing (or caring) what the left hand is doing’ story. I still have a bad taste in my mouth!

 

[wdwfamilynh]

Worst response by Disney EVER! I’m sorry that happened to you and your family.

 

[MississippiBelle]

At that point, from the customer service stand point (in the opinion of someone who as worked several service industry jobs but never actual customer service), they should have eaten the additional fee to get the tickets switched over and sent you on your way with the correct tickets on your magic bands. What point of "Y'all sold me the tickets that I couldn't even use" did they not understand? Straight. Up. Cray.

In other words, I saw the name Drew and was like "wait... who is drew?" But seriously, I can see the regular guest relations CM asking you to pay extra, but for the superior to come over and stand by the extra charge.... nope, not okay.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Sorry you had that hassle. Disney shouldn't have treated you that way, I would say something else but I think I might get censored. I hope you were able to shake it off a little and still have a good time with the fam.